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Chinese Students in an American Professor’s Eyes

太傻的寄托

If you already have an offer at hand, work hard on your spoken English.
See the below.
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Chinese Students in an American Professor’s Eyes

Try a little to stretch yourself and integrate into the greater society around you. It’s definitely a challenge. It can be difficult and unpleasant. But it can also be fun and enriching, rewarding and of the utmost benefit in the long run.

By George Tseo, the author of Two Skies
September 25, 2001

Being an American born Chinese, I realize I don’t have perfect credentials for addressing questions of what it takes for Chinese born Chinese to be successful in America, but one of the first and foremost factors has got to be language mastery. Not just in reading comprehension and writing, but in speech. Chinese TOEFL scores are averaging a little above 600, an amazing standard. At least three admissions officers of U.S. universities that I have spoken with testify to the fact that they compare foreign applicants against their compatriots. That is to say Chinese applicants are compared to other Chinese applicants and not, say, Russians or Africans. In this way the different national averages are taken into account. For U.S. admissions officers are keenly aware that elevated TOEFL scores do not necessarily indicate truly superior command of the language.

The phenomenon of the Chinese graduate student who can’t speak English is quite common and widespread among U.S. universites. For many Chinese graduate students this is not necessarily a big problem. They attend classes and work for their advisers in the lab. They are more or less closeted away. Rare is the instance in which they must interact directly with a non-Chinese. On the other hand, many other Chinese graduate students do not enjoy the luxury of seclusion. They are expected to help teach undergraduate courses, either in part (i.e. a lab or tutorial section) or in total. When they arrive with stunted verbal skills, this brings into serious question their competence and, in many cases, the continuation of their scholarships. Indeed, just the other day my wife spoke with a first-semester Chinese graduate student from Beijing University who admitted to not being able to “understand a single word” of what her professors were saying in class or what her adviser was saying to her in his office.

Some U.S. universities now conduct phone interviews of prospective Chinese grad students. I even know of one university that organizes face-to-face interviews between Chinese applicants and its professors who happen to be in China for research or conference. All this to insure that students culled from the highly reputed Chinese talent pool have the linguistic skills to bring their talents to bear on those tasks with which the university needs help.

For most Chinese graduate students the language problem soon begins to resolve itself after arrival in the U.S. Slowly, lectures become comprehensible. Hours spent in front of the TV are not wasted. (Hasn’t China’s great women’s soccer Sun Wen star learned to speak basic English after only a summer with her new professional team the Atlanta Beat?) There are American friends to be made in the classroom and research lab.

Be that as it may, a large number of Chinese graduate students continue to struggle with English years after arrival and even years into their professional lives here, which does have a negative impact on employment especially in times like these when market downturns dictate massive layoffs across many industrial sectors. In any corporate department, when it comes to giving people the pink slip and showing them to the door, friendship and cameraderie do factor in heavily. If you were a manager would you rather keep someone who was fully integrated into the work place, a real team player so to speak, or someone who barely spoke to his colleagues and spent most of his time isolated in his cubicle or lab?

The crux of the problem lies in the Chinese student community. Not surprisingly, most Chinese graduate students begin their U.S. experience in a shared apartment or house exclusively with other Chinese. If they happen to work in a lab where there are other Chinese graduate students then there is often hardly any need to interact with Americans. I know of students with Chinese advisers, Chinese office mates and Chinese roommates. They shop in off-campus Chinese grocery stores. They rent Chinese videos from a Chinese student association service. If they are so inclined, there are Chinese churches in the area for them to join. If they happen to have families and bring their families over, they can if they wish engage the Chinese parents of other Chinese students to help take care of their children. What need to ever speak English? Thre are people like this. Who go through their entire U.S. graduate experience practically as if they had never left China.

While this type of thing may sound cozy and inviting to the prospective Chinese graduate student setting his sights on America, it is definitely not advised. In the professional realm I know people whose very poor English is jeopardizing their positions right now as I write. I am privy to information from both sides of the issue-the Chinese employees and their American colleagues. The inability of these Chinese to communicate with their office mates does significantly impact their work, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars of misspent funds, tens to perhaps hundreds of dollars in lost revenues due to design and production delays. The co-workers around them are talk openly about the need to lay these people off. This isn’t prejudice or bigotry. Included among those “voting” for their ouster are Chinese and Taiwanese colleagues who do not want to see their company hampered by incompetence. Afterall, we’re talking about business survival and livelihood here.

The long and short of this is that it is well worth a Chinese student’s trouble to learn English well. Spoken English. Not just test-taking, TOEFL-blasting English. U.S. university admissions officers are less and less to be fooled by only a poor to middling command of the spoken language. And for those with little or no opportunity of improving this aspect of their foreign language skill while still in China, if you are lucky enough to get a chance to come to the U.S. for study, take full advantage of opportunities here. Take an English as a second language class. Most universities have them. City governments and community colleges offer them. Join some university clubs to begin to get to know some American students. Get to know your American classmates and office mates. Don’t be shy. DO NOT BE SHY. Force yourself to join conversations. Find an American roomate. This last can be such a big boost in so many ways if you find the right match. My own cousin is doing swimmingly well in all respects after living with the same American roomate for the past four years.

One needn’t give up “being Chinese”, but there is value in trying a little to stretch yourself and integrate into the greater society around you. It’s definitely a challenge. It can be difficult and unpleasant. But it can also be fun and enriching, rewarding and of the utmost benefit in the long run.

March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day

A Traditional and Widely Celebrated Irish Holiday

Each year, millions of people worldwide celebrate this holiday on March 17th,the day of St. Patrick’s death. The holiday has come to mean different things to different people. For some, it is a holy day.For others, it is a day to celebrate their cultural heritage, national identity and all things Irish. A time honored custom on St. Patrick’s day is to dress, eat and drink anything green! It is widely held in the US that because gallons upon gallons of green paint was dumped into the river that runs through the city of Chicago in the past to honor this holiday, the Chicago River is now permanently green.

The enduring legacy of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is the conversion of the Irish from pagan religions to the belief of one God–Christianity. Today, 93 percent of the population in the Republic of Ireland is Catholic. Although Saint Patrick has come to be associated inextricably with Ireland, he was not Irish by birth Born in Wales to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century, his given name was Maewyn Succat (he adopted Patrick or Patricius upon becoming a priest). He was brought to Ireland by Irish raiders at the age of sixteen and subsequently spent six years in captivity tending flocks of sheep in solitude. It was during these years of solitary confinement that Patrick became a devout Christian and started having visions of God.

Guided by these visions, he eventually escaped from Ireland to Britain only to return years later as a missionary priest. The Irish culture centers around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth. The success of St. Patrick’s efforts to convert the Irish lies in the fact that rather than attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs, he incorporated traditional ritual into his teachings of Christianity. For example, in order to make the veneration of the Christian cross seem more natural to the Irish, he superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross(pictured on the right)

Legends of the Shamrock

The Shamrock, at one time called the “Seamroy”, is a trifoliate plant that has become the national emblem of Ireland (see the small clover symbol on this page). Prior to the Christian era in Ireland, it was regarded as a sacred plant that symbolizes the rebirth of Spring. The well known legend of the Shamrock is that St. Patrick once plucked a leaf of it for use in illustrating the doctrine of the trinity (i.e., the Father, the Son and the Holy Sprit). The legend of the shamrock is also connected with that of the banishment of the serpent tribe from Ireland by a tradition that snakes are never seen on trefoil and that it is a remedy against the stings of snakes and scorpions. The trefoil in Arabia is called shamrakh and was sacred in Iran as an emblem of the Persian triads. The trefoil being a sacred plant among the Druids of Ireland, and three being a mystical number in the Celtic religion as well as all others, it is probable that St. Patrick must have been aware of the significance of his illustration.

St. Patrick is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. In accordance with religious traditions, a feast is held not on his birthday but on the day of St. Patrick’s death, March 17th. Historically, wearing the shamrock and things green has become a powerful symbol for asserting the Irish national and cultural identity.

To learn more about the history and the legends of St. Patrick’s Day, Click Here

Information presented here is compiled from various Web resources.

Happy Mother’s Day(Second Sunday in May)

Source: US Embassy Website

This year, Mother’s Day is on May 14th.

On the second Sunday in May, American children of all ages treat their mothers to something special. It is the one day out of the year when children, young and old, try to show in a tangible way how much they appreciate their mothers.

England was one of the first countries to set aside a day to recognize mothers. In the eighteenth century when many people worked as household servants for the rich, “Mothering Sunday” was reserved for them to return home to be with their mothers. Though this custom stopped when the Industrial Revolution altered the working and living patterns of the people, one Sunday for Mothers was established as a holiday in the twentieth century.

In the United States, Mother’s Day did not become an official holiday until 1915. Its establishment was due largely to the perseverance and love of one daughter, Anna Jarvis. Anna’s mother had provided strength and support as the family made their home in West Virginia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where her father served as a minister. As a girl, Anna had helped her mother take care of her garden, mostly filled with white carnations, her mother’s favorite flower. When Mrs. Jarvis died on May 5, 1905, Anna was determined to honor her. She asked the minister at her church in West Virginia to give a sermon in her mother’s memory. On the same Sunday in Philadelphia, their minister honored Mrs. Jarvis and all mothers with a special Mother’s Day service. Anna Jarvis began writing to congressmen, asking them to set aside a day to honor mothers. In 1910, the governor of West Virginia proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day and a year later every state celebrated it.

On Mother’s Day morning some American children follow the tradition of serving their mothers breakfast in bed. Other children will give their mothers gifts which they have made themselves or bought in stores. Adults give their mothers red carnations, the official Mother’s Day flower. If their mothers are deceased they may bring white carnations to their grave sites. This is the busiest day of the year for American restaurants. On her special day, family members do not want Mom to cook dinner!

对大家说下
Happy April Fool’s Day!

April Fool’s Day (April 1)

In sixteenth-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, however, who hadn’t heard or didn’t believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them “April fools.” They sent them on a “fool’s errand” or tried to make them believe that something false was true. In France today, April first is called “Poisson d’Avril.” French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends’ backs. When the “young fool” discovers this trick, the prankster yells “Poisson d’Avril!” (April Fish!)

Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April. One common trick on April Fool’s Day, or All Fool’s Day, is pointing down to a friend’s shoe and saying, “Your shoelace is untied.” Teachers in the nineteenth century used to say to pupils, “Look! A flock of geese!” and point up. School children might tell a classmate that school has been canceled. Whatever the trick, if the innocent victim falls for the joke the prankster yells, “April Fool! ”

The “fools’ errands” we play on people are practical jokes. Putting salt in the sugar bowl for the next person is not a nice trick to play on a stranger. College students set their clocks an hour behind, so their roommates show up to the wrong class – or not at all. Some practical jokes are kept up the whole day before the victim realizes what day it is. Most April Fool jokes are in good fun and not meant to harm anyone. The most clever April Fool joke is the one where everyone laughs, especially the person upon whom the joke is played.

“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. ”
– American humorist Mark Twain

走了几家，唯一至重的还是亲情。

要体会亲情，就要把自己当人来看，想想你为你的至亲的人都做了些什么。如此，你才能体会到亲人为你付出了多少。自重。

走走看看。也曾探讨过亲情，友情，爱情，谁是最重的。爱情，曾经相信；友情，太为难的；亲情，太易得到，不懂珍惜。

不知道明天应该如何安排了。
早晨上班。

下午回去，只能住一宿，然后初一就要过来，初二值班。

路线计划：早晨骑车——医院——吃过饭直接回去。但是东西不能拿太多 。。得准备好先。

其他的，都不怎么方便。